Dave Hall speaks to Holmes Chamber of Commerce

By Kevin LynchStaff Writer

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2018 at 12:01 AMMar 7, 2018 at 4:28 PM

BERLIN — In his new role as state director of rural development for the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary, Dave Hall spends most of his days traveling around Ohio explaining what rural development can do for people in the state.

Hall, a Millersburg resident who served as state representative for 12 years before being term-limited and who also served as a Holmes County commissioner, was the main speaker at the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday in Berlin.

"It’s been a while since I’ve been here," Hall said. "The last time I gave a speech to the Chamber, I was waiting on my next big challenge. Well, it looks like I have one here.

"It’s been an exciting time since I received that call from the White House," he continued. "There’s a little pressure on me right now, because my daughter spoke to the Chamber a few months back, and she raised the bar to a point I can’t get to."

Hall said he appreciates the opportunity to speak close to home, as he heads to his office in Columbus every day around 4:15 a.m. and gets home around 7 or 8 p.m.

"When you hear about USDA, you may think we’re going to talk about farming," Hall said. "But there’s a lot of other things we do under Rural Development other than farming."

He explained his office looks to partner with several programs and he is often looking for new partnerships.

"We have more than 50 grant and loan programs under my jurisdiction," Hall said. "We’ve got four regional offices in Ohio, (Massillon, Marietta, Findlay and Hillsboro).

"We have a full staff of seasoned people who have been in the organization over 25 years," he continued. "I oversee the entire Ohio staff. I sign off on every grant, every program and every loan. I have the ability as director to give projects directive points. It can bump your project up and allows you to connect with the national office."

Hall serves as the eyes and ears for Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, in Ohio, and Perdue passes his information along to the president.

Some of the programs of Rural Development include infrastructure, broadband and the opioids issue.

"We’re challenging these issues," Hall said. "My staff, I have commissioned six people in our state office, to focus on opioids, and focus on we can find our place to work in partnership with nonprofits, hospitals and organizations to fight this.

"We work with Habitat and we also do a grant program where we feed kids in school during the summer school programs," he continued. "We partner with local banks to be part of housing projects. We also do multi-housing loans. Nine people in our office are focused on housing. We also work hand-in-hand with technical grants and electric co-ops. We do farm programs, bio-digesters and all sorts of funding mechanisms on the agriculture side. That includes solar panel funding for solar farms."

In Holmes County alone, Hall’s office is working with four different groups in soil and water and infrastructure projects that are already in the works.

"It’s nice to see hometown people reaching out to us as we move forward with the opportunities we have," Hall said.

Hall said President Trump wants to put $200 million into infrastructure in the United States, with $50 million designated for rural U.S.

"This was the opportunity of a lifetime for me to be President Trump’s appointee for Ohio’s Director of Rural Development," Hall said. "It’s been 100 days to the day since I’ve been appointed, and my goal in the first 180 days on the job was to speak in all 88 Ohio counties."

He has logged 21,000 miles so far.

"I’ve had opportunities to speak at different organizations, and I wear a different hat every day, almost every hour," Hall said. "Sometimes I go into the grab bag of hats I wore as a county commissioner when I talk to a board of commissioners. Or, if I’m talking to a business leader, I wear the hat I wore as former president of OMEGA. Or, I may have to deal with policy issues, and I put on my hat of a former legislator. Those hats are vital as I move forward working for the Secretary of Agriculture."

Hall said he is old school, as when people call him, he answers. He wants to get back to the days of shaking hands to make a deal.

"We are the first point of contact when people call, our first priority is to see if we can help them," he said. "Next is to get the information they need back to them as quickly as possible, and if we can’t help them, find an avenue where someone else can partner with them or help them out.